Let’s explore three Ms that encapsulate North East England – monks, mead and monasteries.
What You’ll Hear
- 0:54: St Aidan & St Cuthbert
- 1:50: Monks & mead
- 2:15: The Benedictines & their infamous Buckfast Tonic Wine
- 3:55: Belgian not-for-profit beers
Listen to the Episode
Ancient Northumbria was like a separate country, with its own kings and customs. Religion was important, and monasteries sprang up all over. One famous bishop was Aidan (later made a saint) who was summoned from his home on Iona by King Oswald.
Oswald disapproved of the Anglo-Saxon pagans, and had been trying to convert them to Christianity for some time. Aidan’s predecessor, one Bishop Cormán, had been unsuccessful, claiming that the Northumbrians were too stubborn to be converted.
Religion on Lindisfarne
Aidan moved to Lindisfarne, the largest of the Farne Islands off the coast of Northumbria, and ran the monastery built there in 635AD. He did quite well, as he built schools, churches and monasteries throughout the region, and gave to the poor.
Aidan was followed by Cuthbert (later made a saint), who was also popular. Cuthbert had converted to Christianity after a vision of St Aidan, and arrived at Lindisfarne in 665. He lived there for 20 years, becoming a bishop in 684. He retreated to his hermitage on the nearby Inner Farne in 686, and died soon after.
The Making of Mead
So, what about the mead? Well, the monks had to keep themselves busy, and, like many other religious orders, turned to making alcohol. Mead, once only available on the island of Lindisfarne, is made with fermented white grapes, honey, herbs and water from the island’s artesian well.
Lindisfarne Mead is so popular that St Aidan’s Winery attracts 200,000 annual visitors. I personally don’t like it, but don’t let that put you off! The medieval monks making it had a serious purpose for it – it was believed that the mead fortified the body so the soul could be in God’s keeping.
Just down the road at Tynemouth Priory, an order of Benedictine Monks moved in at the invitation of one Robert de Mowbray in about 1090. The Order of St Benedict includes nuns as well as monks, and each community takes responsibility for themselves.
They started in Italy about 500 years before they got to Tynemouth, and community is at the heart of each order, and members are expected to remain in the same one for life.
The Benedictine Monks
Some are cut off from the outside world, but others play a bigger part, such as running schools. The Benedictines have produced a number of popes, and members have been martyred or canonised. They have also been writers, scholars and reformers.
The Benedictines are also famous (or infamous) for Buckfast Tonic Wine, made by an order down in Buckfastleigh in Devon. An abbey has been in the town since 1018, with the present structure built in 1134.
Buckfast is 15% proof and in the UK is red wine-based, with large amounts of caffeine for good measure (pun intended). The monks first made it in the 1890s, and recommended “three small glasses a day, for good health and lively blood.”
It has a reputation in modern times, particularly in Scotland, for being a cause of crime. While it only accounts for only a small percentage of total alcohol sales, a lot of it is consumed in Lanarkshire, for reasons unknown. The makers insist that there is no proof that it causes violence, although people do lose their inhibitions. I don’t recommend it!
Trappist Beers
As well as fortified wines, monks throughout history have been brewing their own beers, something that is quite common in Belgium, where my brother lives. There are six monasteries in Belgium and two in The Netherlands.
They make what is known as ‘Trappist’ beers – the term given to a group of monks who are part of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (from La Trappe Abbey, in France).
The Trappist monks lived in isolated silence, surviving on a meagre diet and manual labour, and expected to be self-sufficient. Nevertheless, they managed to brew their own beer, with the Abbey having a brewery in 1685. Originally, the beer was designed for the local community, and now it’s sold to cover the monks’ living expenses.
There are some rules around the brewing, including that is not the primary focus of the monastery and not for profit. As well as living expenses, it covers maintenance works for buildings. And it must be brewed within the walls of the monastery, and if not by the monks themselves, then with them supervising the process.
This episode was inspired by a blog about Lindisfarne Island.
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